Tube based HDTV

[Mania]

Well,

I've mentioned this previously this week, but I'm in the market for a new TV because the ol' 27 incher died. I took the wife to bestbuy last night to take a look at the options. I had been pretty much set on getting a toshiba 27" flat TV for $350. However, among these regular TVs and Advent 27" HDTV looked CLEARLY better than the Wega it was sitting next to. I know from previous experience to avoid APEX like the plague, but because she was so impressed by the HDTV, we went over to the rest of the HDTVs to take a look at a model I had considered, but dismissd. Due to the manufacturer recommendations on this site (thanks Woodman and Smokey) I wanted to consider mostly Toshiba. We really like this TV:


Toshiba 30" TheaterWide HD-Ready Flat-Tube TV with HDMI Input - Silver/Gray
Model: 30HF84

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....0&type=product


We will likely stick with non HD television signals for now because we are so addicted to Tivo, and I can't see spending $1K on an HDTV Tivo DirectTV receiver. A large TV, even it were free, really wouldn't work for us at all. However, the Apex showed us how much better the HDTV can display non HD signals. We also watch a good deal of DVDs. The other advantage of this set, I'm assuming, is that because its a tube TV, it won't have all the issues that are common for big screens (ie burn in or rainbow effect). Also, although it is certainly large enough for our current set up, it is small enough that it can fit in our cabinet or future furniture, which is a humongous issue for my wife. I also really like the way this unit stretched 4:3 images to the 16:9 format, The picture did not look distorted in the least.

Any opions on tube HDTVs this small in size? We are looking to make a decision asap, so I'd appreciate all the help I could get.
thanks in advance,

[hershon]

Other than my 27" regular TV working fine, I'm in a similar boat with you and also went to Best Buy, Circuit City and a bigger LA place called Fry's yesterday. My question for you, I'm assuming you have a home theater sound system and therefore sound is not important, why are you leaning toward the set your mentioning, other than cheaper sets of the same size from name brands? I'm just curious because I'm trying to see what factors should go into why I choose a system or not?

Well,

I've mentioned this previously this week, but I'm in the market for a new TV because the ol' 27 incher died. I took the wife to bestbuy last night to take a look at the options. I had been pretty much set on getting a toshiba 27" flat TV for $350. However, among these regular TVs and Advent 27" HDTV looked CLEARLY better than the Wega it was sitting next to. I know from previous experience to avoid APEX like the plague, but because she was so impressed by the HDTV, we went over to the rest of the HDTVs to take a look at a model I had considered, but dismissd. Due to the manufacturer recommendations on this site (thanks Woodman and Smokey) I wanted to consider mostly Toshiba. We really like this TV:


Toshiba 30" TheaterWide HD-Ready Flat-Tube TV with HDMI Input - Silver/Gray
Model: 30HF84

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....0&type=product


We will likely stick with non HD television signals for now because we are so addicted to Tivo, and I can't see spending $1K on an HDTV Tivo DirectTV receiver. A large TV, even it were free, really wouldn't work for us at all. However, the Apex showed us how much better the HDTV can display non HD signals. We also watch a good deal of DVDs. The other advantage of this set, I'm assuming, is that because its a tube TV, it won't have all the issues that are common for big screens (ie burn in or rainbow effect). Also, although it is certainly large enough for our current set up, it is small enough that it can fit in our cabinet or future furniture, which is a humongous issue for my wife. I also really like the way this unit stretched 4:3 images to the 16:9 format, The picture did not look distorted in the least.

Any opions on tube HDTVs this small in size? We are looking to make a decision asap, so I'd appreciate all the help I could get.
thanks in advance,

[Mania]

Hershon,

I'm assuming that you mean other 30" HDTVs? Well, there are a couple of reasons.
-I am more confident in Toshiba as a company than others such as phillips and Samsung. Those others are only marginally less expensive, so the $$ isn't much of an issue.
-The Toshiba has avery nice stretch effect to view the 4:3 image on the 16:9 screen. I was very impressed. The Sony that I saw didn't have a stretch in effect on, so I can't comment on it.
-This television also has the speakers UNDER hte set instead of on the sides. As a result, it has a nice appearance, and also fits into a standard cabinent of armoir more easily, as it is taller than other widescreens, but less wide. As a result, this television will fit in the space I currently use, while other, larger and wider TVs will not.

Good luck shopping Hershon, I'd be interested to see what you are leaning toward.

I'm hoping that Woodman or someone else with experience could tell me about the realiability of these tube base HDTVs vs standard sets and vs larger progection versions.

[Smokey]

Hey Mania and Hershon,

May be this rating of non HD TV from Consumerreprot will help you with your desicion (from DEC '03 issue):

Toshiba Cinema Series 27AF53 top the chart

Rating of 27, 32 and 36 inch non-HD TVs by ConsumerReports.